This is a list of the most popular mangas going by ages
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Bastard is quite popular among people who is around 20-30 years old
Bastard in first place despite the gloomy story is not meant to be taken seriously.
It is a seinen parody (meant for adults) where the the are tons of references of other manga series and even from Disney and religion.
The author simply mocks about the typical heroes, stories and villains.
You can see things like Satan recreating the musical of the Genie from the disney movie
Aladdin
Or Konron who looks almost identical to one of the characters of Street Fighter
You see as well how the author mocks about over powered characters.
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Lie-Detector?
Penicillin?
Instant victory?
Error-Detect?
Anti-Gas?
It is quite easy to realize that the author wants to mock about those over powered techniques and characters from other series.
Like the typical character that says "I am invincible because my defense is absolute even more absolute than yours"
You see as well how the author criticizes the catholic religion.
i.e It is well known that the bible has some sexist stuff.
The man is good. WHile the woman is sometimes even represented as something evil.
And the author laughs about that when he draws the mother ****ing arch angel Michael no one else but the most important angel who is said to be the right hand of God....as a hot blond woman with giant boobs.
Another example:
As you know the bible says that the day of the final judgment everyone even those who
are innocent are going to pay as well for the sins of others.
The author mocks about that, by portraying the angels as some asshats.
And the list goes on.
You are saying that those who read Bastard!! is because we like to see guys and girls naked right?
I think that anyone who is smart enough and has no kind of complex would care about something so pathetic as that.
Christianity has showed across history lot if intolerance against naked body and sex.
They talk about naked human body and sex as if it were something evil or the work of Satan.
So why the hell would anybody care about that? It is just the freaking human body and a mature person would see it as something natural and would not get scared about it or jokes related about that.
Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, etc. tons of civilizations talked about sex, naked human body and orgies. They made jokes about it, artworks and some even thought about it as something even divine.
Just look the myths. The minotaur was born by Zeus incarnating as a bull and having sex with a woman.
So because of that it means they were ignorant fools that merely liked to see naked bodies?
Or Miguel Ángel was gay because he wanted to create the David?
Of course no, they were brilliant people who had no kind of complex against human body
and even now despite many years have passed, their works keep inspiring us.
If you find disturbing to see someone show his penis in a manga, why do not you go to a church and ask the father that you want to become a priest. Because it is hard for you to understand why a mangaka would make jokes about that kind of stuff in a fictional world.
Hell even now these days there are lot of places where people make ceremonies, events and festivals where people celebrates naked.
It is ok if you do not like the series. After all the intention of the author was to create a series that was against the ideology of lot of people, with lot of content that many people would see as controversial.
It simply is not the stereotypical series with the stereotypical hero.
For that I would rather see a Disney movie than a series with a stereotypical story line, with cliche characters.
But I do not see the point of creating this kind topic, other than intolerance, some kind of hate toward the series, an attitude where you want to prove at all coast that you are right and the series that you like are better, because you think so, while you as well talk bad about those who read Bastard!!.
I have seen lot of narutohaters who say lot of crap and some absurd comments about the series. I am not a fan of the series, but I disagree about the way how they talk about the series. Indeed they tend to act really biased and with a very immature attitude.
Therefore in some way I can see your point of creating this thread. You like your stuff and others do not show respect. And when you do the same, they do not like it.
But man seriously in the end it is not better at all what you are doing.
So it would be better to not open again this kind of topics.
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On other hand talking about the artwork
This is one of the first covers that Hagiwara drew when he had no budget and resources
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So seriously are you going to tell me that he is not a good artist? Hell I have seen many mangas and in my opinion that cover has far better art than what most mangakas draw now these days
And again that was when he had no budget nor resources.
Now lets take a look to some of his current works
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When I was 12 my mother hated with such passion my manga series.
But one time when I showed her these pics. Even she liked a lot the artworks.
So how about not downplaying other series, just because you do not like them?
